Scold, threaten, intimidate: Referees in baseball are fed up

The message comes from ‘Hans Anders’. As if the chain of Opticiens wants to contact Jeffrey BentSnijder via Facebook Messenger. But the sender has no profile photo. “Don’t lie so next time […] Please, “it says.

Attached is a photo of the form that referee BentSnijder filled in a few days earlier after the end of a baseball game between RCH-Pinguins from Heemstede and Neptunus from Rotterdam. The club from Heemstede is 0-6 behind when a RCH player is thrown out at first base. Out of frustration, he throws his helmet on the floor and clearly shouts audibly: “Cancer mess!”

BentSnijder sends the player away. The rules are clear: vulgar language is not permitted, just like throwing material. The player responds furiously. Only after twelve minutes of protest does he leave the field.

After the match, BentSnijder makes a report that he is sending to the Criminal cases of Baseball Association KNBSB. He decides as a disciplinary court whether the player should be further punished. In addition to the union, only the club involved will receive a copy of the report and the player.

There is no doubt for BentSnijder: ‘Hans Anders’ is a pseudonym of the player involved. If he sends a message back, the player admits that, with the excuse that he has used the pseudonym since he was young. BentSnijder makes screenshots and sends a complaint to the baseball association KNBSB.

‘Put it in the spotlight’

In mid-June it was the ‘Week of the Official’ in Dutch baseball, according to the KNBSB ‘the ideal week to put club and federal referees in the spotlight’. Because, at the start of the theme week, said Stefaan Eskes general director: “They make our sport possible.”

That turned out three weeks earlier, when three of the four games in the big league, the highest level in the Netherlands, did not continue on Ascension Day. The referees stopped, in protest against the aggressive behavior they experience on and next to the field. In their eyes they get too little support from the union and involved clubs.

For baseball sport, aggression against officials is a growing problem; The number of baseball referees has decreased from more than a hundred to fifty in recent years. “It is an empty that we have not been able to turn the tide yet,” says Peter Brink, who as the main official represents the referees at the KNBSB.

The Netherlands is an internationally established name in baseball, culminating in the world title in 2011, but that is largely due to talented players of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands who end up in the American professional competition Major League Baseball (MLB). Compared to that, the Dutch big league is a different world. No full stadiums here but a few dozen spectators in the stands, and virtually no one can live on sport.

Also not the referees. They receive a few tens and a travel allowance per match, furthermore they do their work – often several competitions a week, at least two hours, excluding travel time – especially for love for sport.

But that pleasure is under pressure due to the lack of support and respect, the striking referees write on 28 May in a letter to the union. “Stop or consider colleagues. If this trend continues [sic]the continuity of baseball is endangered. Because: without referees, no matches. “

Unwavering attitude

The only competition that did continue on Ascension Day was that where Bensnijder was in charge. It was his farewell match, because BentSnijder decided to stop out of dissatisfaction about the handling of his complaint about the messages from ‘Hans Anders’.

With his departure, the Dutch referee corps has lost a good colleague. “I think that Jeffrey is not only one of the most talented referees in the Netherlands, but of all of Europe,” says his colleague Peter de Haan, referee since 2006. BentSnijder is praised by his colleagues for his rule of game and his unwavering attitude in the field.

The 31-year-old BentSnijder starts at the age of fifteen with ‘calling’ competitions, as it is called in sport. The positive reactions he receives motivate him to free up more time for the sport. In 2023 he travels to the US for five weeks to follow a referee course of the MLB. He is then the only active referee in the Netherlands who has completed an MLB course.

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His return to the Netherlands is sobering. One of the first games that BentSnijder leads is Van RCH in Heemstede. Afterwards chairman Frits van Iperen comes to him and says he wants to start a disciplinary case against BentSnijder. Van Iperen believes that the referee behaves like a king, according to two sources that witnessed the confrontation.

The complaint is not submitted, and Van Iperen says he does not remember ever threatening a disciplinary case. “I sometimes approached BentSnijder afterwards because he had sent away several players, asking what he himself thought of his performance. But I never said this.”

Intimidation and threats

The incident at RCH does not stand on its own. All referees do have a story about intimidation or threats by players, coaches or club drivers, both inside and outside the field. It is often small, they are called blind or deaf.

But sometimes it’s worse. Niek Elshof, a referee for twenty years, tells how he gave a pavement during a play-off match in 2022 that the batter did not agree. He made, with his bat still in his hand, a beating movement to the referee. The promotion can be seen on competition images on YouTube. Elshof: “I don’t know if he really wanted to touch me, but it wasn’t really a comfortable situation.”

Main Official Brink, 37 years of referee, experienced that players threatened to leak his tires. “I just gave them my license plate, then they would not accidentally destroy someone else’s car.”

Fans also cannot always restrain themselves, as witnessed a competition in the southernest division between HSC Jeka from Breda and Cardinals from Oss last year. Referee Yoshi Kocken made a decision to the disadvantage of the Breda team, after which the father of one of the Jeka players got involved. “I sent him away, but he didn’t want to leave the park. Then I stopped the game.” Jeka lost the match in a regulatory manner with 9-0 and received a two points deduction.

Such incidents are submitted to the CRIMMS CREATMAS OF THE KNBSB, which publishes its statements anonymously on the website of the Baseball Association. It can be concluded that the number of disciplinary cases has almost doubled over the past five years, to more than one hundred last season. The majority are about cross -border behavior towards referees.

Lack of appreciation

In the months after the incident with the chairman of RCH, BentSnijder notices that he has lost his pleasure in referees. The way in which the baseball association handles the issue of the messenger messages of ‘Hans Anders’ is the drop. Because it happened outside the field, no further penalties are distributed. The KNBSB does ask the club RCH to address the player about his behavior.

Shortly thereafter, RCH chairman Van Iperen informs the union that the player has received a reprimande and had to broadcast a match if punishment. But Van Iperen wants to say something. “It is special that this took place at Jeffrey BentSnijder. Certainly not loved by RCH and this man apparently seizes every opportunity to make a mosquito an elephant,” he writes.

When a bensnijder gets to face it, something breaks. Not only is his complaint not taken seriously, he is again personally attacked, this time by a club director. He asks the KNBSB for support, but the union sees the case handled. The same evening, BentSnijder will e -mail that he will lead his last game later in the week.

RCH chairman Van Iperen still supports his words. “I wrote that because it is. It is not a judgment but a observation. This man misses a degree of empathy and has had most disciplinary cases to his name for years.”

He says about the messenger messages of his player: “I have not seen the messages, otherwise we might have responded very differently. I think a player may have his own opinion, as long as that is not cross-border. We live in a free country.”

General director Stefaan Eskes does not want to comment on the BentSnijder case or the statements of Van Iperen on behalf of the KNBSB. Eskes calls the departure of BentSnijder a “huge loss,” but has not spoken to the referee since then. “I wonder if that is the role of a general manager.”

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More assertive coaches and players

Under referees there is an understanding of the decision of BentSnijder. They criticize the attitude of the chairman of RCH and the union. “If a chairman, he must first consult himself with himself. But the union must also be on top of that and support the referee, because this is not possible,” says referee boss Brink.

Recently, a handful of referees has stopped because of the misconduct, and another handful of that has considered that. “I also thought about it myself,” says De Haan, “after being threatened last year. I wondered who I was still doing it.”

Where the aggression comes from? “Since Corona we live in a new era, with only larger contradictions,” says Brink. It seems “as if many players miss a piece of upbringing,” says Kocken. “Nobody respects the borders of the other anymore,” says Elshof.

After BentSnijders decided, the plan for a joint strike arose. During the farewell match, federal administrator Eskes spoke with the referees present. “They have told what they feel and find and what should be better.”

What has been agreed to improve the situation does not mean Eskes say. “I don’t want to run for the troops.” A good first step, the referees say, would be like offenders as a punishment themselves, so that they can experience what it is like.

KNBSB director Eskes was surprised by the strike. “I think it is an extreme measure. The number of disciplinary matters was declining this season, we have already sent compliments about that twice from the union. But this shows that the number of disciplinary matters is only an indication of what is happening on the field. If the referees experience it that way, then that is worrying.” He acknowledges that a culture change is needed.

The referees are skeptical. “The mutual relationship with the KNBSB is now okay, but a lot has to happen,” says Elshof. His colleague De Haan has little faith in it, because the KNBSB reacted so briefly on Bentsnijders departure. MAIN OFFICIAL Brink: “Players and coaches must learn to accept that the referee has a authority function.”

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